Judi Altinkaya

Moving to live and work in a new country involves finding out a great deal of information that locals simply take for granted. New Zealand organisations are very good at providing that information, however the information provided is not always written or presented in the most user friendly way.

Keeping it Clear – a new guide written and produced by Immigration New Zealand - aims to address this by providing organisations with tips to follow when they are communicating with people new to New Zealand.

Tips include keeping language short and simple, active and direct and avoiding idioms and ‘kiwi-isms’ that newcomers may not understand.

We don’t realise that there are more than 25,000 idioms in the English language and we liberally scatter them through most information. These are extremely difficult for new speakers of English to understand.

They can be the difference between a newcomer acting on information or ignoring it.

Even the Kiwi expressions that we think nothing of, such as “bring a plate”, “box of birds” or “across the ditch” can have migrants, even from other English speaking countries, scratching their heads in confusion. Yeah, Nah… Absolutely!

This session will introduce delegates to the guide and cover off some of the more important tips.